March 24, 2015

Nacho Average Group Break - Heritage Style

Chris at Nachos Grande has opened my eyes to the wonders of the group break. Here we are a little more than halfway through March and I've already participated in both of his 2015 breaks. I've really enjoyed the concept and I've been fairly lucky with the results so far. This second time around, the break consisted of a case of 2015 Heritage and a 'bonus' box of 2004 Clubhouse Collection which promised hits-a-plenty.

Once again, Chris included some extra Yankees stuff along with the goods from the break. The most notable this time around was my second Topps Chipz. This A-Rod joins CC in the Chipz collection. I'm not sure I'll ever bust any packs of these on my own, but they are certainly interesting and welcome break/trade acquisitions.

I'm not going to post scans of the entire team(which I received at least four or five times over), but will focus on a few of my favorites. Unfortunately there were exactly zero Yankees in the SP high numbers this year. Really Topps, zero? I know that with the retirement of Derek Jeter, the Yankees don't really have much in the way of a hobby superstar, but some teams out there had 4 or 5 SP's. You'd think there could be a little more equitable distribution, at least one SP per team. OK, rant over. I really like the 'classic' poses on the Gardner and Nova. It certainly doesn't hurt to see the famous Yankee Stadium facade behind them. They are probably two of my top five current favorite players on the team. I include the Girardi because it's so rare to see a manager's card in today's hobby. I think these should be a staple in Flagship, but that's just this guy's opinion.

Three more pitchers from the set. The old school 'All-Star Rookie' cups on the Betances and the Tanaka are great! As I've previously written, I have high hopes that Pineda can have a productive, if not dominant, season.

I really like the team cards, but I think they should have come up with alternate captions or left them off completely for the teams that didn't finish first or second in their division. It is definitely strange to see a celebratory team photo with the words 5th Place ________ Division. Even though the Yankees didn't make the playoffs, at least 2nd place in the division doesn't look too bad. The 2015 Rookie Stars is my favorite of the Yankee base cards from this set. I was hoping that Jose Pirela would get a rookie card when Topps series one was released. He played really well for the Triple A Scranton Railriders and earned a September call-up during which he hit pretty well in limited at bats. I got to meet him at the Triple A All-Star autograph session held in Durham this past season. He was a really nice guy. I had hoped that he would have a real chance to earn either the starting SS or 2B role this season, but with the addition of Didi Gregorius and the re-signing of Steven Drew(no idea what they were thinking), it looks unlikely that Pirela will get much of a shot. After the loss of the Captain, this should be a prime opportunity to give a shot to some of their younger guys like Pirela and Rob Refsnyder.

As we move on to the non-base card part of the program, I was lucky enough to land one of the box topper advertising panels. Even though this will be difficult to display, I love adding stuff like this to the collection.

The design of the New Age Performers is solid year after year. I landed three copies of this Tanaka so if there is anyone out there looking for a copy, I can send one your way.

I know they don't really fit with the 'vintage' theme of Heritage, but I think the Chrome and refractor parallels are great. I was lucky that this refractor of Ellsbury came out of the case. It's numbered out of 599 and is shiny, sparkly goodness! It probably would have been the card of the break for me if it hadn't been for the next lucky pull.

It's a piece of a bat from the Captain!!! It's not numbered, but it was awesome to see this card come from one of the boxes. That would have been a good enough break. A solid haul, nothing spectacular or super rare, but I would have been happy with it.

Fortunately, Chris pulled a Yankee hit from the box of Clubhouse. Granted, he's not a very memorable Yankee, but Ruben Sierra played for a long time and put up some respectable numbers over his career. It seems he was playing almost as far back as I remember watching games(almost). I was very happy to get this card. It's way better than not getting any hit from that box. It was truly some icing on what was already a pretty decent break from my perspective.

Once again, huge thanks to Chris for putting in all of the work to plan and host this break! I hope to join another one sometime soon.

Yeah, I'm starting to think I need to change the name of the blog to: I Love the Smell of Sawdust in the Morning! I saw you got that cool Mauer jersey card(I pulled the same one from a hanger box) and I love the pic on that Vargas. Congrats!

I actually have two of the Mauer Jersey relics - I bought one at a card show before the break was over because I assumed my odds were not good... I should have waited! They seem to be almost common based on how many are floating around out there... The one from the break has the pinstripe centered really well, so I'm keeping that one and trading the other one.

I agree with you on two points...first, manager cards should absolutely be included in the flagship Topps set! Secondly, as a fan of a team that finished last in the division last year, I totally agree that those Heritage team cards are very awkward. The Red Sox card has them all high fiving each other too, as if they accomplished something great. I'm going to have a post up griping about that exact card in the next couple days...

Thanks Julie! I had the post scheduled to publish and I changed the name about 30 minutes before it went live, I'm glad at least one person liked it. I agree, I thought maybe there would be one last DJ Heritage base card(SP or not). Truth be told, Flagship card #1 and #319 would be tough acts to follow as it relates to a 'sunset' card for the Captain.